Golf player aid with stroke result forecasting

ABSTRACT

A method of using a computing device to forecast the result of a golf stroke and a portable handheld device for collecting and displaying golf round data are provided. The data collected for each stroke includes the location, time, and club used and the resulting ball position achieved” Before each drive or approach shot player skill level, course layout information, and player location on the course are used together with the club selected by the player to forecast the result of the next stroke. Putt break prediction information is provided before each putt. Information that a stroke has been taken and which dub was used can be entered manually or sensed automatically from telemetry equipped clubs.

PRIORITY CLAIMS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/489,481, filed Apr. 17, 2017, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/548,323 filed Oct. 11, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No.9,656,147, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 09/739,503 filed Dec. 19, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,121,962.The entire contents of each of the above applications are incorporatedherein by reference in entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the game of golf, and more particularlyto a player aid device which predicts the likely result of the nextnon-putting stroke with a chosen club or the likely break of the nextputt.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Golfers playing a game of golf try to maintain a consistent swing andadjust the distance the ball travels by choosing the correct club. Theydesire to choose the correct club to advance the ball toward the cup ona particular green without overshooting the green or putting the ballinto a hazard area such as water, trees or a sand bunker. In order toaccomplish this, they need to know their present distance from the greenand the expected result of applying their personal playing skill to eachof the clubs they carry. They typically use their estimate of distancesand recollection of past performance to choose a club which they thinkwill safely advance the ball. Players often want to choose a club whichlimits the distance the ball will travel to keep it on the near side ofa course hazard. Distances are not easy to estimate accurately andplayers sometimes choose a club which drives the ball too far and putsit beyond the target green or into a course hazard.

Accuracy is also not easy to estimate from memory. Players sometimesattempt to advance the ball to a position between course hazards when inreality their skill level makes a successful outcome unlikely. Animportant function of professional golf caddies is to offer playersdistance and game strategy advice to aid these distance and accuracydecisions. Players also desire to play continuously without beingdelayed by unusual slow players ahead of them on the course.

A previous golf round data system in U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,077 teaches asystem which efficiently gives course distance information, collectsshot accuracy and distance data with each of the player's clubs, pacesplay to discourage slow play, and displays performance data after theround is completed. It depends upon the player's memory of his pastperformance and skill to choose the correct club while playing. Theprevious golf round data system also needs some local external computercapability to load in course data before play, receive and process rounddata after play, and produce skill and performance information for theplayer. The golf round data system in U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,077 uses aspecial purpose unit which has no other function. It also requires theplayer to press a button to indicate that each stroke has been taken anddata should be recorded. This earlier system does not let the playerspecify the intended direction of the next stroke. The prior art doesnot reveal any prediction of the likely path of the ball following anon-putting stroke. It also does not reveal any forecasting of puttbreak left or right from a straight line extending from the player tothe cup.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved golfplayer aid system which predicts the result of the next non-puttingstroke based upon the player's club choice and skill level. It alsoprovides information on the left or right break of the next putt. Recentimprovements in cellular telephones, the global positioning system, andgraphical display are employed.

This new system can use a graphical display to show the player theprobable distance and accuracy result of a stroke to be taken using aselected club and present skill level. The display shows the currenthole being played, the current ball position, the intended direction ofthe next stroke, and the probable result area within which the ball canbe expected to lie after a stroke taken with the selected club. If acourse hazard is within the probable result area the player can adjustclub selection or intended direction to obtain a more favorable result.As play on a hole progresses the display changes to show the features ofthe hole between the player's present position and the objective even ifthe player is outside the fairway. After reaching the green the displaycan aid putting by showing the forces tending to make the ball breakfrom a straight line to the cup. It can also display the approximateputt break distance and direction thus enabling the player to compensatehis putt aim point.

This invention also allows course layout information and past playerperformance data to be loaded into the hand-held unit via a cellulartelephone call. The results of past rounds can also be shown directly onthe graphical display. These features permit this new golf round datasystem to be used without access to a separate local computer. Thecombination with cellular telephone permits a hand-held unit withutility beyond the golf game. Since cellular phones will soon berequired to have location capability to facilitate emergency calls it isrelatively easy to include golf round data collection features in ahand-held cellular telephone.

The system also can automatically detect strokes taken and clubs used tocollect round data without the player having to remember to do anythingto make it happen. Each of a player's clubs can be equipped to emit asignal when they are used to stroke a ball and the new golf round datasystem hand-held unit receives, interprets and registers these signals.The player would still be responsible for entering penalty strokes sincethey do not have a club physically striking a ball. The round datacollected can be used to update the skill database for a player toimprove the accuracy of stroke result predictions in future rounds ofplay.

A further feature of the new system is that after the round is completethe data can be uploaded to the player's unique file area on theInternet. This permits the player to access his or her golfing data andanalyses of it from any Internet access point.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a cellular phone handset with graphic golf rounddata capability.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the components of a cellularphone handset with graphic golf round data capability.

FIG. 3a is diagram of a telemetry equipped golf club.

FIG. 3b is a schematic block diagram of components of a radio telemetryunit.

FIG. 3c is a diagram of a passive telemetry unit cross section.

FIG. 3d is a schematic block diagram of components of a built-in radiotelemetry unit.

FIG. 4a is a diagram of a graphic display prior to a second stroke on ahole.

FIG. 4b is a diagram of a graphic display prior to a putt.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of a souvenir map of a course and round.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a cellular phone handset with agraphic golf round data capability. The outer case 1 is of the typetypical of cellular handsets. It is lightweight, breakage resistant, andresistant to environmental effects. The antenna 2 converts cellular andradio location radio waves into electrical signals for processing bycircuits inside the case 1. The antenna 2 also converts cellular phonesignals into radio waves when the handset is transmitting. Speaker 3 andmicrophone 4 apertures in the case allow sound out and in. Contacts 5 onthe outside of the case permit battery charging and serial datacommunication with other data handling devices. A conventional telephonekeypad 6 is provided for entering telephone numbers. The send button 7enables telephone numbers entered to be connected. The end button 8 isused to end calls and turn power on or off. The menu button 9 lets theuser call up a main menu to select among the available operating modesof the handset. These modes can include phone, email, web, golf, GPS,golf/phone, and GPS/phone. These particular labels assume that the radiolocation system used is the Global Positioning System. The cursor button10 allows the user to increment the cursor from one item to the next onthe display 11. The increase button 12 lets the user increase the valueof a cursor selected item and the decrease button 13 lets the userdecrease the selected item. The ok button 14 allows the user to enterdata and activate the chosen items and values displayed. Display 11 isshown as a standard 320 pixel by 240 pixel unit oriented 240 wide by 320high.

The alphanumeric information for the user is along the edges of thedisplay 11. The mode display 15 shows the current operating mode. In theexample shown in FIG. 1 the mode is “PLAY GOLF”. The identifyinginitials of the current user are shown at 16. The hole being played isshown at 17. The number at 18 is the minutes remaining to complete thepresent hole if the players are to maintain a course managementprescribed schedule of play. The yards 19 from the player's presentposition 31 to the central area of the green 25 is displayed. The club20 the player intends to use for the next stroke is shown. The number ofstrokes 21 already used on the hole is displayed.

The central portion of display 11 shows a graphical representation ofthe hole being played. Items shown are the tee box 22, the fairwayboundary indicated by a dashed line 23, the putting green boundaryindicated by a solid line 24, the location of the central portion of thegreen indicated by the plus mark 25, bunkers indicated by stippledregions 26, standing waters hazards indicated by the dashed area 27,flowing water hazard indicated by multiple lines 28, trees 29, out ofbounds regions indicated by crosshatched area 30, the player's presentposition indicated by the x 31, the intended direction for the nextstroke shown by the long-short dashed line 32, and the probable regionthe ball will land is shown by the dotted oval 33.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of the operating components ofthe cellular telephone handset with graphic golf round data capability.The microprocessor 34 which can be any of several widely known andavailable integrated circuits executes instructions from the programmemory 41, receives and transmits data, and manages the overalloperation of the handset. The antenna 2 converts cellular telephone andradiolocation radio waves into electrical signals for the radio locationreceiver 35 and the cellular telephone transceiver 36. The radiolocationreceiver 35 can be made from commercially available chip sets whichprocess signals from the Global Positioning System; it could also besome other radio location receiver such as one based upon sensing thetime delays to send signals between the handset and each of twodifferent cellular towers.

The microphone 37 converts speech and other sounds into electricalsignals which are amplified and coupled to the telephone transceiver 36and the microprocessor 34. A/D converter 38 digitizes the analog signalsand passes the digitized representation of the sound information to themicroprocessor 34. The loudspeaker 40 is connected to the cellulartelephone transceiver 36 to let the user hear phone messages and throughO/A converter 39 to allow microprocessor 34 generated audible signals tothe user. The D/A converter 39 converts digital signals from themicroprocessor 34 into analog signals to drive the loudspeaker subsystem40 which would typically contain a power amplifier and an electrical toacoustic transducer.

The program memory 41 retains the program instructions and wouldpreferably be a non-volatile type such as flash memory, EPROM, EEPROM orbattery backed RAM. The telephone 1.0 memory 42 is also non-volatile andretains telephone number, serial number and account informationnecessary for the cellular system to recognize and connect to aparticular handset. In practice memories 41 and 42 could in fact becombined within a single integrated circuit. Course data memory 43retains golf course layout information used to generate graphicaldisplays and alphanumeric data displays as a round of golf is played.The player data memory 44 retains information about one or more players'skill levels. This information is accumulated from previous roundsplayed by each user and loaded into the player data memory 44 prior tostarting a round of play. The round data memory 45 retains data for allstrokes taken by one or more players during a round of play. The strokedata for each stroke includes the location of the stroke, the club used,the hole being played, the time of the stroke, and the identity of theplayer making the stroke. The RAM random access memory 46 is the usualutility memory for variables and computations common to systems withmicroprocessors.

The key switches 47 are activated by the user operated buttons to allowuser data inputs to the system. The data transfer interface 48 permitsthe handset to exchange data with one or more computers which retain therequired databases. The interface could for example be a simple RS-232standard serial port, an infrared optical link, an RF link such as theBluetooth standard. The battery and power supply 49 stores enough energyto operate the handset for at least one round of golf and supplieselectrical power to the other components of the handset.

FIG. 3-A shows a perspective view of the lower portion of a golf clubequipped with a telemetry unit which sends data to the hand-held unit ofFIG. 1. The club 50 is shown with a short portion of the club shaft 51.The telemetry unit 52 affixed to the shaft near its lower end as shown.The telemetry unit communicates to the handheld data unit of FIG. 1 thefact that a particular club is being used to make a stroke.

FIG. 3-B shows a schematic block diagram of the components of a radiotelemetry version of telemetry unit 52. The accelerometer 55 detectsclub head motion which is perpendicular to both the top face edge 54 andthe shaft centerline 53. That information is passed to the motiondetector 56 which turns on the transmitter 57 to send a coded radiosignal. The code number transmitted uniquely identifies the player andclub being used since each individual telemetry unit 52 that is used ona golf course has its own unique preassigned identifying code. Thebattery 58 powers the telemetry unit 52. The transmission frequency ofthe transmitter 57 is chosen to match that of one of the several radioreceivers in the handset shown in FIG. 1. These receiver frequenciesinclude the radio location frequency, cellular frequency or frequenciesand the frequency of any receiver in the data transfer interface 48.

FIG. 3c shows a cross section of a passive acoustic telemetry unit. Thecross-section plane contains line 53 and is parallel to line 54. Holes59, 60, 61 and 62 each emit a whistle tone as the club is swung rapidlyproviding a strong airflow over their open ends. The pitch of each toneis determined by the length of each hole. Shorter holes emit higherpitch tones. The holes can be kept short enough to make all the tonesabove the human hearing tonal range and therefore inaudible. Any of upto three of the tones can be silenced by omitting its correspondinghole. This provides 15 unique tone pattern combinations allowing eachclub a player carries to be assigned its own tone pattern. The naturalclick sound made when the club contacts the ball provides an acousticsignal indicating that a stroke has been taken. Microphone 37 and A/Dconverter 38 convey the tone patterns and clicks to the microprocessor34 where the information is processed to determine that a stroke hasbeen taken with a particular club. Short putts do not make enough soundto register automatically and are therefore entered manually by theplayer.

The telemetry versions in FIGS. 3a, 3b and 3c can be applied to existinggolf clubs. If the Telemetry capability is built into clubs during theirmanufacture then tone generating holes like 59, 60, 61 and 62 can beplaced in the club heads. Radio telemetry can also be efficiently builtinto clubs during their manufacturer. FIG. 3d shows a schematic blockdiagram of components of a built-in radio telemetry unit. The hand gripswitch 63 detects that the player has gripped the club and activates theball contact detector 64. The hand grip switch 63 can take any ofseveral forms. It could be a simple pressure sensitive contact whichcompletes a circuit; it could be a piezoelectric sensor and thresholddetector; or it could be a piezoresistive sensor and threshold detector.The ball contact detector can be a microphone embedded in the club head,an accelerometer in the club head, or a piezoelectric or piezoresistivesurface on the club face. When the ball contact detector 64 detects ballcontact it activates the coded radio transmitter 65 which is like 57.The battery 66 can be conveniently mounted inside the club handle whereit is easy to replace and can also be reasonably large withoutsignificantly changing the player's swing motion.

Another useful form of handgrip switch is a normally closed contactswitch on the handgrip end of the shaft. When the club is lifted off thebottom of the golf club bag the switch would close to turn on codedradio transmitter 65 providing an identification signal enabling theportable player aid system to automatically determine which club hasbeen tentatively chosen for the next stroke. A stroke result forecastwould then be produced without the player having to key in a clubselection or even lift the club completely out of the bag. The switchwould make contact as soon as the handle of the club is lifted fromcontact with the bottom of the bag.

Before the hand-held unit in FIG. 1 can be used it must be loaded withcourse and player specific information. If an analog or digital cellulartelephone connection is available then the player dials a predeterminedtelephone number. Based upon the location of the hand-held unit asdetermined by its radio location capability the player receives a listof nearby golf courses. If he or she happens to be near the clubhouse ofa golf course the list consists of the courses served by that clubhouse.If the player is not near a course clubhouse he or she of receives analphabetical list of nearby courses with a “more selections” line at thebottom a list to permit the list to be expanded until the desired courseis found. Allowing for an expanded list of the golf courses permits theuser to preload the hand-held unit at any time before play is to begin.This capability is particularly useful if cellular coverage does notextend to the golf course to be played. Selecting the desired coursestarts the course data download. Course data consists of tee and greenlocations measured in the geographic coordinates used by theradiolocation capability of the hand-held unit. If the hand-held unithas a graphical display then course information also includes a coursemap containing the features to be displayed for each hole. The playerthen enters or his or her identity to start a download of playerspecific data. If the display 11 does not include a graphics capabilitythe player specific data is the mean distance achieved with each club inpast play. If display 11 can show a graphic representation of each holebeing played then the player specific data includes the lengths andwidths of the elliptical patterns 33 containing 50% of the results ofprevious shots taken with each of the player's clubs, omitting theputter. If adequate past playing statistics for a golfer are notavailable then statistics for a player of average skill are entered. Anytelemetry codes that identify the player's telemetry equipped clubs arealso downloaded. If a hand-held unit is to be used by more than oneplayer then player specific information for the other players who willuse the unit is also downloaded.

If course management desires to use it, the two-way communicationcapability can be used to assign a tee time when play is to begin at thefirst tee, set whether the distance information display 19, 33 is on oroff, set whether or not distances are to be displayed on the hand-heldunit if it is near the center of the green, set whether the pacing timer18 is on or off, and collect payment of green and cart rental fees.Complete blanking of the distance display would be necessary for theremaining features of the system to be used in tournament play since thenormal rules of golf prohibit the use of range finding devices in suchplay.

If the cellular capability is unavailable then data is transferred usingthe data transfer interface 48. The data transfer interface 48 connectsto some device such as a personal computer and downloads the sameinformation as above from a local database or from remote centraldatabase. The remote central database can be maintained on an Internetsite.

After the data has been transferred to the hand-held unit, the playerdisplay 16 shows identifying initials for the first player entered intothe hand-held unit's memory, the hole number display 17 shows O becauseno hole has begun yet, the time display shows the minutes remaininguntil tee time for the starting tee, the distance display 19 shows thedistance to the starting tee if it is less than 1000 yards, the clubdisplay 20 is blank as is the stroke count display 21. If the timeremaining until tee time exceeds 60 minutes then the time remainingdisplay shows hours and minutes remaining separated by a colon. Thedistance display goes blank if there is insufficient received radiosignal strength to produce an accurate measurement of position. Thisfeature alerts the user to the need to reposition the hand-held unit.

On heavy course usage days which are typically weekend days withpleasant weather slow play is a problem for course management. To combatslow play the pacing feature has been incorporated in this invention.When it is active the time remaining display 18 on the hand-held unitshows the time remaining to play out the present hole and get to thenext tee. For most players, this gentle reminder would be sufficient tocause them to keep up their play pace adequately and not, for example,consume too much time hunting a hopelessly lost ball. However, themanagement can also use the time remaining display to make rulesprohibiting slow play if that is necessary. There could be a busy courserule for example which states that a playing group loses its tee time onany hole if the fairway in front is clear and they have not left the teebefore the next following group's tee time for that hole. The slowplayers would then have to stand aside and let the impeded followinggroup play through and try to fit themselves into the following playerstream or skip that hole and go to the next. Since the hand-held unitrecords the locations of all player groups on the course as they makestrokes and the times at which they were there, it would be possible formanagement to identify habitual slow players and prohibit them fromplaying on busy days. A scheduled intermission feature between holes 9and 10 recognizes the fact that courses are usually laid out to bringthe players back so the clubhouse between holes 9 and 10. On hot daysthey are likely to appreciate a lengthened cooling break forrefreshment. The time to the next tee display 18 provides an easy andconvenient way for players to take a break without impeding play.Management in scheduling the pacing feature simply adds the desiredbreak time to the scheduled time to play hole number 9. The scheduledbreak between holes 9 and 10 also puts some slack in the playingschedule to allow slower players to get back on time.

The distance displayed 19 is the distance from the present location tothe next objective on the course. The radiolocation receiver 35 andmicrocomputer 34 determine the present location of the hand-held unit onthe course. The location of the desired course objective has previouslybeen stored in the hand-held unit memory. The microcomputer 34 in thehand-held unit uses this information in conjunction with its programinstructions to compute the distance between the two points in a mannerwell known by those skilled in the art. In the interests of speedingplay course management may choose to activate the close to the pinfeature which causes the distance display to show “<20” when thehand-held unit is less than 20 yards from the center of the green. Thisfeature reduces distractions for players when they are close enough tothe pin to clearly judge distances for themselves and are likely playingputting strokes. The next club display 20 designates the numbered driverclubs as a number followed by a lowercase letter d, the numbered ironclubs by a numeral followed by a lowercase letter i, and the unnumberedclubs by two upper case letters such as P for the putter, PW for thepitching wedge, and SW for the sand wedge.

When the time display 18 goes to zero indicating that tee time for thestarting tee has arrived the hole number display 17 changes to thenumber of the starting tee. The distance display 19 shows the distanceto the corresponding green. It sometimes happens that players begin onhole 10 rather than 1 if for example they are going to play only 9 holesor there is course maintenance in progress on holes 1 through 9. Thenext club display 20 shows the club which the player identified by theplayer initial 16 would typically use if that player's previous club usestatistics have been entered into hand-held unit player data memory 44.In the absence of statistics for a particular player the next clubdisplay would show the club which would be used by an average player.The stroke display shows a O because no strokes have yet been consumedon the hole. At this point in the use cycle the next club display 20 isblinking to indicate that it can be changed by the player by using theincrease button 12 or the decrease button 13 on the hand-held unit. Theplayer can also use the cursor button 10 to select which display itemblinks and can be changed by the increase or decrease buttons 12 and 13.Each press of the cursor button 10 moves the blinking locationsequentially among the items which the player can control. These are thenext club to be used 20, the intended direction line 32 for the nextstroke, hole number being played 17, player identity 16 if multipleplayers are sharing a hand-held unit, and strokes used on the hole 21.The next club display 20 blinks and can be changed at will by the playerwho is about to strike the ball from the tee. The player increases ordecreases the club display 20 until it shows the club selected by theplayer for the stroke. For each club, the probable result 33 is shown.If the display is non-graphic showing only alphanumeric characters thenthe average distance for the selected club would show momentarily on thedistance display until the increase or decrease button is released.

Since the display already shows a club close to the appropriate one, thenumber of increases or decreases to make the display match the clubintended is small. One press on cursor button 10 then moves the blinkingto the intended direction line 32 for the stroke about to be taken.

When the line 32 is blinking pressing button 12 shifts line 32 to theleft; pressing button 13 shifts line 32 to the right. While at thelocation of the first stroke, the player presses the OK button 14 torecord in hand-held unit memory 45 the fact that a stroke has been used,the club displayed by 20, the radio location position on the course atwhich the stroke was taken, the intended direction 32, and the time atwhich the stroke was taken. The first stroke will be in a course teearea for the first hole to be played but these are typically fairly longto allow players of different abilities to play the course comfortablyby using one of three or more tee locations usually designated in orderof increasing distance from the pin as ladies', men's, and professional.For this reason it is necessary for the locations of tee strokes as wellas the other strokes in a round to have their positions recorded.

If the player is using telemetry equipped golf clubs as shown in FIG.3a-3d adapted to work with the hand-held unit then nearly all strokesand clubs are automatically registered. Some short putts may be so softas to be undetectable by the telemetry and still have to be registeredmanually by pressing OK button 14. For most strokes, the player thensimply edits the intended direction 32 if it is not toward the center ofthe green 25, enters penalty strokes, and corrects any erroneouslyregistered strokes.

After a stroke is registered automatically or by pressing the OK button14 the display changes in one of two ways depending upon whether thehand-held unit is being used by a single or multiple players. If asingle player is using it then after a stroke is recorded the strokedisplay 21 increments by one and blinks to allow the player to easilyuse the increase button 12 to register a penalty stroke if one should becalled for by the results of the stroke just previously registered. Theclub display 20 shows the club just previously recorded for the stroke.The direction line 32 shows the intended direction just previouslyrecorded for the stroke. In the event that the player pressed the OKbutton 14 in error without actually taking a stroke or recorded a clubor intended direction not actually used the stroke can be canceled bydecreasing the stroke count display 21 by one using the decrease button13 and a message is shown on display 11 in place of part of thegraphical display. That message is “Canceling last stroke also erasesits lie, intended direction, and club-press CURSOR to proceed.” Themessage remains displayed until it is acknowledged by the playerpressing the cursor button 10. Whether or not the previous stroke hasbeen canceled, after cursor button 10 is pressed the display returns toits original configuration ready to register a stroke. The displaywindow 11 shows player identity 16, hole being played 17, minutesremaining to get to the next hole tee 18, yards 19 to the center of thegreen of the hole being played, next club 20 selected (flashing), andstrokes used on the present hole so far 21. The direction line 32extends from the present position 31 to the center of the green 25. Ifthe player using the hand-held unit singly does not press any buttonsafter registering a stroke and moves more than 10 yards from the lierecorded the display reverts to the numerical configuration with theapproximate club to be used next 20 blinking. After play for a hole iscomplete and the hand-held unit leaves the vicinity of the green and istransported to near the tee for the next hole, the hole number 17advances to the next hole number to be played and time display 18changes to the time remaining to complete that next hole. Hand-held unittravel from a green to the next tee area is easily detectable by themicrocomputer in the hand-held unit since the radiolocation systemcontinually updates its present position data and the locations ofgreens and tee areas have been previously stored in the hand-held unitmemory. Thus a player using a hand-held unit by himself withouttelemetry equipped clubs ordinarily would simply change the club displayand direction displays 20, 32 and press the OK button 14 as the round isplayed. With telemetry equipped clubs the player would not need tochange the club display 20 and would rarely need to press the OK 14button to correctly register strokes.

After each stroke on a hole the player moves to the ball's new locationand the graphical display 11 changes as shown in FIG. 4a . The displayshows the portion of the golf course between the player's position 31and the green 25. In the particular example shown in FIG. 4a the playeris in an adjacent fairway while playing hole number 3 shown on holedisplay 17, has 9 minutes remaining to complete the hole as shown on thetime display 18, is 95 yards from the middle of the green as shown onthe distance display 19, has chosen to use a nine iron as shown by thenext club display 20, has a 50% probability that the ball will landwithin contour 33, and has previously used one stroke on the hole asshown on the stroke display 21.

When the player reaches the green the display changes as shown in FIG.4b . Shown on the display are the edge of the green 24, the player'slocation 31, the cup 67, and a straight line 68, between the player andthe cup. The contour of the green and the grain of the grass imposeforces on the ball tending to slow or speed it and tending to make itbreak from the ideal straight line 68. Those forces pushing on the ballare displayed as lines 70 toward successive possible ball positionsalong line 68. The length of each line toward a ball position isproportional to the magnitude of the force at that position on thegreen. The direction of lines 70 indicate the direction of the forcepressing on the ball at each position. In the particular example in FIG.4b the ball traveling along line 68 would experience a smallaccelerating force with a break toward the left at all places except atand immediately before and after position 69. At position 69 the ballexperiences a retarding force and a significant break to the right dueto a transition up a short incline to a higher level near the cup. Thedistance display 19 shows an estimate of the distance the putt willbreak left or right from a straight line between the player's positionand the cup. In the particular example shown in FIG. 4b the handheldunit has estimated from the green contour and position data that theputt will break 2 feet to the right.

The location of cup 67 may not have been included in the course datadownloaded to the portable unit. This may be the case because the cuplocations are often changed daily and course management may find itinconvenient to update the course database that often. If the cuplocation is not in the downloaded course data then the handheld unitcould be used to enter it. A term CP representing the word cup could beadded to the club list for club display 20. The player would then scrollthe club list to CP and press the OK button 14 while standing over thecup to store the cup location without recording a stroke.

If multiple players are sharing a hand-held unit, then after a stroke isregistered by pressing the OK button 14 the display changes to show thestroke count 21 increased by one and no display elements blinking for aninterval of about 5 seconds. After the 5 second interval for the firstplayer to see what has been registered the displayed player initials 16change to those for another player and blink. If the player designatedis the next to take a stroke then that player simply moves to his or herball, presses the cursor button 10 to make the next club display 20blink, adjusts the club display to the club chosen using the increase 12or decrease 13 button, presses cursor button 10 to make the directionline 32 blink, moves the line display with increase 12 or decrease 13buttons, and registers a stroke by pressing the OK button. Thus it isseen that two players can share a hand-held unit with nearly the sameease of operation as a single player. Four players sharing a hand-heldunit would easily use the increase 12 or decrease 13 buttons to selectthe correct player initials before each stroke. Yet at any time thecursor button 10 and increase 12 and decrease 13 buttons can be used tocorrect the displayed club, stroke count, and hole number for any of theplayers. If no button is pressed within 15 minutes since the last buttonpress, then the hand-held unit automatically records its presentposition in memory to facilitate slow play detection.

At any time, there are two other hand held unit golf operating modes inaddition to PLAY which players can access by pressing menu button 9, thecursor button 10 to move the cursor to golf, the OK button 14 to selectgolf and make the display show the three available golf modes which arenamed PLAY, CARD and SHOW. A golf mode is selected using the cursor 10and OK 14 buttons. PLAY is the round data collection playing modedescribed above. The CARD mode causes the display to show a player'sscore card for the round up to the present hole. The SHOW mode displaysprevious strokes taken during a round. To show previous stroke thehand-held units' buttons are used to set the hole number 17 and thestroke number 21. The graphical display then shows a line extending fromthe location where the stroke was taken to the location of the nextstroke. The club display 20 shows the club used for that particularstroke. The direction display line 32 shows the stroke's intendeddirection. The distance display 19 shows the distance achieved with thecaption changed from “YARDS TO GREEN” to simply “YARDS”. If the strokewas the final stroke on a hole then an X shows the location of thatfinal stroke without any direction or distance information display. ThisSHOW mode lets a player review any previous stoke in a round or replaythe entire round if that is desired.

After play for a round is finished the data collected for each playerusing a hand-held unit is up loaded to a database. The database containsinformation on previous rounds played by each player and is the sourceof information about player performance. The database can be maintainedon a local computer, at some remote central site preferably accessibleby the Internet, or copies of the database can be maintained at bothlocal and remote central locations. If the cellular telephone service isavailable the upload data transfer can be accomplished by dialing apredetermined telephone number to establish a connection with thecomputer maintaining the player's database. Alternatively, the datatransfer interface 48 can be used to connect with a local computer. Datatransferred to a local computer can be entered into a locally maintaineddatabase for the player and/or forwarded onto the player's remotecentral database.

Wherever the database is maintained, several outputs can be generatedfrom it. The database contains the identity of the player and thecourse, the location of each stroke taken during a round, and the dataand time of play. For any particular round a souvenir plot of the courseand the path of the strokes taken by the player can be printed alongwith a scorecard as shown in FIG. 5. Certificates commemorating specialevents such as a hole-in-one, handicap reduction, or other significantimprovement can be printed. Past play data allows each player'sperformance to be analyzed. The distance and directional accuracy ofeach stoke taken with each club can be computed from the ball positiondata stored. From this data, the probable result contour 33 for eachclub can be computed for a player. The player's skills in separateportions of the game such as driving, approach shots, sand trap strokes,and putting can be compared with averages for players of similar skilllevel to determine which portion should be worked on first to gainimprovement in game scores.

From the above description, it is seen that the present invention is asignificant improvement over the previous golf round data system. Itcollects more accuracy data, presents it to the player moreconveniently, takes advantage of cellular telephone capabilities, doesnot necessarily need equipment installation at the golf course, andmakes the resulting data easily accessible to the player anywhere thereis Internet access.

The particular embodiment described above is not the only possibleconfiguration of this invention. For example, the monochrome graphicdisplay described could be changed to a multicolor unit to use coloredregions in place of lines to designate course areas. The radio locationreceiver could be connected wirelessly and not be within the sameenclosure. The probable result display could be shown as a rectanglerather than an ellipse; or the probable result could be shown as ascatter plot displaying the range and accuracy of previous strokes takenwith the chosen club. The displayed objective on the green could be thecup rather than the center of the green surface. The hand-held unitcould be made smaller and less expensive by substituting an alphanumericdisplay for the graphic display described, and the device would still bea significant improvement over the previous art. The cellular featurecould be omitted for hand-held units which are always to be used at acourse equipped with local data transfer capability, and they would costless and serve the players just as well. The collected round data couldbe maintained on some other easily accessible data repository instead ofthe Internet web site described.

The stroke result forecast could use a club or a series of clubsautomatically chosen by a computer connected to the display unit basedupon location and skill data instead of having the user select a clubbefore displaying a forecast. The system would thus have a clubrecommendation capability. In the preferred embodiment described theautomatically generated direction indication is shown toward the green.Alternatively, it could be computed to maximize the player's chance oflanding the ball on the fairway or green so that on long dogleg holes orthose with hazards on one side of a fairway the initial directionindication may not be straight toward the green. The system would thusproduce playing strategy recommendations.

Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined not by theparticular embodiment illustrated, but by the appended claims and theirlegal equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of using a computing device to forecast the result of a golf stroke, the method comprising: storing performance data in a memory; receiving an input indicative of a selected club; determining a range or probable outcomes of a golf stroke based on the performance data stored in memory and the selected club; and displaying the range of probable outcomes to the player on a display connected to the computing device.
 2. A method of using a computing device to forecast the result of a golf stroke, the method comprising: storing golf course putting green data in a memory; determining a player's current location on a current golf hole; determining an outcome of a golf putting stroke based on the golf course putting green data stored in memory and the player's current location; and displaying the outcome to the player on a display connected to the computing device.
 3. A golf aid comprising: memory for storing performance data; a processor to determine a selected club and to determine a range of probable outcomes of a golf stroke based on the selected club and the performance data stored in memory; and a display to display the range of probable outcomes of the golf stroke.
 4. A golf aid comprising: memory for storing golf course putting green data; a processor to determine a player's current location on a golf hole and to determine an outcome of a golf putting stroke based on the player's current location and the golf course putting green data stored in memory; and a display to display the outcome of the golf putting stroke. 